


Cold

by rsadelle



Category: Eroica Yori Ai o Komete | From Eroica with Love
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1999-06-04
Updated: 1999-06-04
Packaged: 2017-10-28 14:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/309059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things fall apart on a winter night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold

My only love sprung from my only hate!  
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!  
\--Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

***

I've been with the Major for a long time. I've seen a lot of other Alphabets come and go. Some go on to better jobs, but some of them die, or are injured and leave. I've seen the Major mourn them and grieve and then push us just a little harder so that maybe next time no one will die. But this time, I don't know if he'll be okay. It wasn't one of us this time, but the Major still feels responsible because he was working a mission with us.

***

A crack as the first gunshot is fired. Then the next one and the next one. And Klaus shouting, "For God's sake, get down!" And then another bullet ripping through the air. Red blooms and blond hair hits the snow.

***

I've never seen the Major act the way he did that night. He's always calm, focused, even when one of us gets hurt. I guess he just never thought this could happen. None of us did.

***

Klaus orders the Alphabets to pursue the enemy and they do as he drops his gun. He kneels over the fallen man and undoes his shirt. He tries to staunch the blood. He forces his own breath into the still body. "Breathe. Damnit, Dorian, just breathe." The tears freeze before they can fall. He radios for an ambulance. Dorian draws a breath. "Why didn't I just teach you how to shoot?" After an eternity, the ambulance arrives, flashing lights reflecting off the snow and the ice and the pallor of Dorian's skin.

***

He cried. The Major cried. Because Dorian Red Gloria, Earl of Gloria, the art thief Eroica, the biggest thorn in our side, was shot. The Major rode in the ambulance. He stayed at the hospital the whole time that the Earl was there.

***

Klaus paces the waiting room. The Alphabets and Bonham watch him from where they are slumped in chairs. James lies where he landed when his crying gave way to exhaustion. Each circuit of the room seems to bring the No Smoking sign into sharper focus. They wait.

***

I went to visit four times. The first was with Bonham. I don't think the Major was surprised to see us together. He doesn't miss much. He must have known we were more than just casual acquaintances. We tried to make him go home for some sleep, but he wouldn't. The second time was with B. We Alphabets worked out a rotation and it was our turn to check on the Major. The third time was with Z. He took one look at the Major and politely but firmly ushered him out of the room and sent him home for a few hours with the promise that we wouldn't leave the room. What amazed me was that the Major actually left. I have no idea what it is about Z that got through to the Major, but I guess that's why he's the favorite, even though I've been here longer.

***

Hours of waiting for the surgery to be over. The doctor comes out. Bullet successfully removed. Breathing on his own. Sedated. They're relieved and the Alphabets begin to trickle out until only Klaus, Bonham, and James are left. The doctor comes back. He's in a coma. He may not wake up. James has hysterics again. Klaus finally collapses into a chair and buries his face in his hands.

***

The fourth time I went alone, just to see how things were. I peered through the half-open door. The Major's back was to me and I could see that he had one of the Earl's hands clasped in his. He was leaning over the Earl, telling him he was sorry and that he wished he'd just snap out of it and come back. I turned and left without going in. I felt ashamed that I'd eavesdropped on even what little I'd heard.

***

"I'm sorry. God, Dorian, I'm so sorry." He ignores the tears that roll down his cheeks to drop onto the sheet covering the still form on the hospital bed. He clasps one cold hand. "Please come back to me." His mind registers that he should be ashamed of his pleading tone, but he isn't, he can't afford to be. Not when the man in front of him is dying.

***

I wasn't there. None of us were, not even Bonham. He feels guilty about it, about leaving to take care of James rather than staying with the Earl.

***

Machines whine and breathing stops. Klaus steps back as doctors and nurses rush into the room. Frantic efforts to save a life. The doctor pulls away and announces time of death. Klaus looks down on the still body.

***

He went to the funeral. We all did--the Alphabets, Bonham and James, of course, the Major, and even the Chief. The Earl's mother and sisters were there, too.

***

The wind whips around the mourners, pulling hair across faces and dresses across the bodies of the women who seem almost out of place at this funeral full of men. James cries quietly, for once. Bonham holds him and strokes his hair. It is a short, quiet, graveside service. Klaus pulls a rosary out of his trenchcoat pocket. He threads the beads through his fingers and says the words recalled out of childhood ritual. The minister finishes. The family files past to drop handfuls of dirt into the grave. Klaus follows. He stands for a moment, then drops the beads in as well.

***

The Chief made the Major take two weeks off after the funeral before he could come back to supervise us. He stayed in England for at least part of the time before he came back to work.

***

He stands and stares down at the stone marker. He traces his fingers over the name and the dates. His tears are whipped away by the wind before they can touch his cheeks.

***

The Major yells at us again, now that he's back at work, but it seems half-hearted, something done out of habit, because it's what we expect. It's ironic in a way. All these years people--Misha and the KGB, the neo-Nazis, and even the Chief, in a way--have tried to destroy the Major and now it turns out that all they ever had to do was kill Lord Gloria.


End file.
